Last fall, Tesla introduced an optional, semiautonomous "autopilot" mode on its Model S. Equipped with ultrasonic radar, the system can sense and avoid obstacles, other vehicles and even pedestrians. Hell, the thing even changes lanes for you with the flip of a turn signal. On Friday, Elon Musk revealed two new features that will do even more of the driving for you: highway autosteer and parallel autopark.

Today Tesla announced a new "Ludicrous Mode" for its top-of-the-line Model S P85. The new mode reduces the 0-60 MPH time to 2.8 seconds with a quarter mile time of 10.9 seconds. The front engine now has 259 hp while the rear engine is pushing 503 hp. Wow! The new electronics pack that makes Ludicrous Mode possible for the Model S will cost new owners an additional $10,000. Current owners will be able to upgrade their vehicle for $5,000 for the next six months. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the new mode pushes the vehicle to 1.1Gs while accelerating and that it's "faster than falling." Musk also introduced a new 90kWh battery pack upgrade for the 85kWh Model S which increases the range five percent for $3,000. The 70 kWh rear-wheel drive Model S also got a price drop to $70,000.

Tesla's battery-focused "Gigafactory" isn't even finished yet, but that isn't stopping the electric car maker from expanding its plant's territory. The company just confirmed that it has nearly tripled its Nevada land purchases, adding 1,893 acres to the 1,000 it got back in 2014. Not that Tesla is planning to grow the factory itself in the near future. A spokesperson tells the Wall Street Journal that most of the new turf is a buffer space -- Tesla could put solar farms in this area to power the factory, but it won't add manufacturing capacity in the short term. Elon Musk and crew have the option of buying thousands of more acres, though, and there's a real chance that they'll need the extra headroom if the Model 3 and Powerwall take off.

Over the past few weeks, General Motors has focused on bringing Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support to its vehicles. While this functionality is great for drivers, the company's current infotainment ecosystem still relies on being updated at dealerships -- which can be a hassle to some people. But, it looks like that won't be the case for much longer. On Wednesday, GM's global product development chief, Mark Reuss, said the automaker is already working on a new technology that will allow future vehicles to receive cloud-based software updates.

Apparently, Tesla Model S owners like to hit the road quite often. The electric car maker has revealed that Model S drivers have collectively notched up more than 1 billion miles, or enough usage to prevent over 570,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the EV's three-year history. Is this marketing hype? Absolutely -- we're sure that conventional car brands wouldn't even blink at that milestone. However, it's evidence that Tesla is growing up as a company. It's an established (if small) presence in an industry where electric cars still tend to be treated as side projects, rather than the main attraction.

Eventually, you might not have to find a charging station when you park your electric car downtown -- pedestrians could do the work instead. Pavegen has teamed up with Tesla to show off an experimental charger that tops up your EV through kinetic energy from footsteps. You'd need "several hundred thousand" steps just to drive a Model S for 20 minutes in a downtown area, the company tellsPSFK, so you won't power your vehicle just by running in place. However, this isn't as daunting a challenge as it sounds. Many urban hubs are chock-full of foot traffic, and a sufficiently long stretch of sidewalk could speed up the charging time. It'll be a long while before you see this in action. Pavegen is crowdfunding the technology, and it'll depend on adoption from cities and corporate offices after that. If all goes well, though, people power might be all you need to complete your commute home.

One of the perks of being a Tesla EV owner is having access to the company's Supercharger free refueling stations. Knowing a widespread network of Supercharger sites will be key to getting British bums in leather seats, Tesla said late last year that within six months, you'd be able to drive the length of the UK on complimentary juice. While that may already be theoretically possible if you fancy chancing the journey from Leeds to Edinburgh on a single charge, we haven't heard a peep out of Tesla since January, when it declared 20 Supercharger sites were now live. Expansion is back on the agenda, though, with Tesla announcing fresh plans to build seven Supercharger banks at motorway service stations "to enable routes to the West of Scotland and Eastern England." These will join the 22 currently operating sites, with more additions to the network due to be revealed soon.

If you own an electric car, your two main charging options are plugging in at home or connecting to a public charging station like one of Tesla's Superchargers. Home charging is simple enough, but there aren't a huge amount of public terminals available. BMW has been experimenting with ways to power its growing number of electric cars in public spaces, and came up with the idea of turning LED street lamps into charging locations. The lamps, known as Light & Charge, have a modular design that BMW says "can be installed anywhere" and utilize up to four LED modules for night lighting on main roads or two in quieter areas.

Unfortunately, we can't always make people interact with us in the methods of our choosing (see Episode 1 and parents refusing to text). This week our communication conundrum comes by way of Facebook aversion, and I can certainly relate: the easiest way for me to never attend your event is to invite me on Facebook. Sorry.

Plus, we learn more about when you can get your paws on Powerwall from Tesla, and how moist is too moist for a PC? Can we please never say the word "moist" ever again? Ugh, now I'm just making it worse. There have actually been studies about why we have such word aversion to "moist," which you can learn about here. I'm all about educating, after all.

Finally, here's our Emoji Poll below, where you can help Vincent decide if he's in a doomed relationship or not! Don't forget to send in your questions using the hashtag #DearVeronica in the places you Internet. See you next week!

When Tesla talks about plans to enter the world of mainstream electric cars with the Model 3, it's not just referring to launching one vehicle -- it's actually talking about a whole lineup. The automaker's JB Straubel says that the Model 3 will include not just the expected sedans, but crossovers as well. There aren't more details at this point, but it's apparent that the new EV series is about transforming Tesla into a more accessible brand, not just giving you a lower-cost alternative to a Model S. Straubel is certainly optimistic about what the 3 range can do. He expects to see a million Teslas on the road by 2020, which would make Elon Musk's outfit considerably more than a niche badge.

If you've ever taken your Tesla to a battery swap station then, according to Elon Musk, you're in a minority. At the company's shareholders meeting, the CEO revealed that the uptake on the service has been miniscule. Musk said that, by this point, every Model S owner in California had been invited to book an appointment, but only a handful took them up on the offer. As such, it's highly unlikely that the company will persist with the plans, instead focusing its time, money and resources on building out its popular supercharger network.

Guess what, Tesla: you're not the only car maker getting into the home battery game. Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a personal energy cell that, like Tesla's Powerwall, uses giant batteries to store surplus power from your home's solar panels and keep you off the conventional energy grid. The German firm is taking a more modular approach than its American counterpart, though. Each pack only holds 2.5kWh of electricity, but you can combine up to eight of them to hold 20kWh, or twice as much as a Powerwall. That potentially suits it to certain businesses, not just your own abode. Whatever you think of Mercedes' pack, it may be your best hope of getting some clean energy storage in the near future. With Tesla's unit already sold out through mid-2016, you may have little choice but to register for the Mercedes equivalent and wait until it ships in September.

If you want to buy a Model S in Texas, you're going to have to jump through some hoops for at least the next couple of years. Bills that would let Tesla sell cars directly to customers aren't going to get a vote before the state's legislative session wraps up on June 1st, leaving the electric vehicle maker high and dry until the next session kicks off in 2017. This doesn't mean that you're completely out of luck if you want Tesla-made transportation in Austin (see above for proof), but you can't simply pick one up.

One of the biggest issues in the automotive industry is that when car makers come up with an innovative new technology, it can take years for others to catch up. Tesla made a positive change when it opened its patents to further the adoption of electric cars, and now Ford is getting in on the act too. The company announced today that it will make at least 650 patents "dedicated to electrified vehicle technologies" available to other car makers, but unlike Tesla, is asking for an undisclosed fee. Ford already has six hybrid or all-electric models available to buy, but seems intent on increasing that number with a little help from its new facility located near Henry Ford's original labs in Dearborn. It intends to hire another 200 electrified vehicle engineers at Ford Engineering Laboratories this year, allowing it to "solve bigger challenges and help improve the industry." Now all we need is for Toyota and co. to follow suit.

In vehicles with self-driving features, who takes the blame for a crash? Tesla may have an answer. The Wall Street Journalunderstands that the turn signal activation of the Model S' car-passing autopilot is largely about liability. When you flick the signal stalk, you're conveying your intent -- if the vehicle smacks into someone else as a consequence, you're likely at fault. This is unfortunate if it leaves you on the hook for an accident that was out of your hands, but it could also save you from requiring special registration to get your semi-autonomous machine on the road.

The FTC did what it could to convince New Jersey and Missouri to repeal their ban against Tesla's direct-to-consumer sales approach back in 2014. Now the commission has published another strongly worded letter backing Tesla, targeting Michigan, in particular. In it, the FTC makes its point clear: it believes that "states should allow consumers to choose not only the cars they buy, but also how they buy them." If you recall, Michigan's governor signed a bill into law last year that specifically banned Tesla from selling to consumers directly. All automakers have always been prohibited from doing so, but the law was still signed to eliminate any room for confusion.